Another Saturday Night
"Not again" Elizabeth Weir groaned as the door to her quarters refused to open. She ran her hand over the panal, again and again and still it refused to open, she slapped the panal and kicked the door, all that got her was a pain in her palm and a sore toe. Right! someone was going to fix this, even if she had to drag Rodney kicking and screaming up here it was going to get fixed. She stormed off to the science lab and she wasn't going to take no for an answer, she was going to make someone pay for her being alone again on a Saturday night.
Radek Zelenka was on his way to the mess hall, he needed coffee, no he didn't, what he really needed was that bottle of Schnapps his sister had given him and with the empty bottle he was going to hit Rodney, Sheppard, Ronan and Carson over the head. All day they had been telling him about the dates they had that evening. Being single he was happy with, having it rammed down his throat he could live without. Elizabeth saw Radek coming towards her, he could fix her door, he was the best at fixing Ancient technology and he didn't whinge like Rodney did, in fact he was possibly the nicest guy in Atlantis, he always had time for her and he was always the one who translated the technobabble for her.
"Good evening Dr Weir" said Zelenka as he was about to pass her, she grabbed hold of his shirt sleeve
"You'll do, come with me I need you to fix my door" she said as she pulled him along with her, he felt the stitches give.
"Of course, but..." he spluttered, Elizabeth didn't let him finish.
"I'm not taking no for an answer, I'm fed up with you lot giving me the run around" she exclaimed.
"I'm willing to help you but..." he replied trying to free his shirt sleeve from her grip, she wasn't listening
"What bit of I'm not taking no for an answer don't you understand, you are going to fix my door" she said
"Dr Weir!" Radek raised his voice and Elizabeth finally stopped walking
"What!" she asked
"I will help you open your door but will you let go of my shirt" he replied and pointed to where the stitches were coming apart. She let go,
"I'm sorry but I wanted to make sure you'd fix my door and wouldn't leave me out in the cold" she said with a glint in her eye, he smiled at her.
"I would never do that" he replied.
Outside her quarters Radek was examining the panel on her door
"Yes, yes I can see what has happened here, the chip that recognises your DNA has crashed and it's wiped itself" he looked at her "basically it can't recognise you as you, it will have to reinstall itself", Elizabeth groaned
"How long will it take?" she asked, Radek shrugged.
"I don't know, I'll have to go to the lab to get the piece of equipment I need" he shrugged again "a couple of hours".
He left her standing by the door as he made his way back to the lab. Great thought Elizabeth, if it took a couple of hours to get back into her room that meant she'd have to sit in the mess hall or the arboreum or some other public place where couples went on their dates and she'd have to sit there like the wallflower she used to be at the school dances. She spotted Zelenka heading towards her with some gadget in his hand and he got to work unscrambling the door. Typical, Elizabeth said to herself, the first time I've had a man to myself in months and I can't do anything about it. She gazed at Radek working on her door panel, he had nice green eyes she thought and she could listen to his accent for a long time too, she thought about the bottle of wine her mother had given her the last time she was on Earth.
"Don't drink it alone" Rebecca Weir had said to her daughter with a knowing look "wine this good has to be shared, with a man preferably" only now she had the perfect opportunity the damn bottle was on the other side of a locked door.
"There that should do it, if you run your hand over the panel it'll start loading the recognition programme" he said, Elizabeth did as she was asked and the panel wheezed into life and started to click and squeak as it's programme started to run "and it is going to take 2 hours maybe 3 to complete" he shrugged "sorry it's the best I can do". Elizabeth nodded
"Thank you Radek" she sighed "Now do I go to the mess hall or sulk in my office"
"You can wait in my quarters with me if you like" he said, he closed his mouth before anything else came out, what the hell had possessed him to say that. He'd admired her from afar for a long time, a couple of times he'd thought about asking her to join him in the mess hall but he didn't want her to get the wrong idea, hitting on your boss was professional suicide.
"I'd like that" she said.
"How did you do that?" Elizabeth asked "get the music to start playing when you opened the door?" Radek looked a little sheepish
"I got bored one night and it makes the place seem a little less lonely" he replied, that seemed sensible she thought, she'd ask him to do the same for her one day. "would you like a drink?" he asked, his sister had said he had to share the bottle with someone, a woman if possible, she'd said with a grin.
"Yes please, it's the best offer I've had all day" she said as she sat down "who is that" she waved her hand in the air "the music, it's familier somehow"
"Fleetwood Mac" he replied, she frowned
"I thought they had a female singer" she remarked
"No this is the early days when they were a blues band, Peter Green the singer, he took Acid and pfft..." he tapped his head "he went strange". He handed her a coffee cup with the Schapps in it "It's not eligant but it's what's inside that counts" he said with a smile. She accepted with thanks and took a swig, wow this Czech firewater was good stuff, she could feel it warming her insides right down to her toes, she took another gulp, kicked off her shoes and leaned back. She gazed at Radek and decided that he really was a nice guy, not like Simon at all, she smiled to herself, time to start dancing that old dance again, Radek would never make the first move, too much of a gentleman which was nice in a way, she supposed. She slid next to him and leaned across to pick up the bottle, she put her hand on his leg, to steady herself she said and picked up it up, she turned the label towards her read the name out loud, he chuckled
"I wouldn't say that too loudly in any bar in Prague" he said
"Why? have I just insulted the President or something" she replied, he smiled mischieveously
"No, you've just asked me to kiss you" he remarked with a grin, her eyes glinted as she leant closer and kissed him
"At least I've learned a useful Czech phrase, políbit mě" she repeated the phrase, looking at him, willing him to take the bait.
He hadn't seen that coming, once his brain had got over the shock he relaxed a bit more, he looked into her eyes as she spoke Czech, she was daring him.
"You asked for it" he murmured as he pulled her closer and kissed her, she responded to him with a little more passion this time.
She broke away from him to get her breath back.
"When did you say my door would be fixed?" she asked
"Oh a few hours yet" he replied with a smirk
"It's a good job I don't have anything urgent waiting for me in my room" she said with a knowing wink. He wasn't going to tell her that her door had probably opened 30 minutes ago, one day he might tell her but not now.